Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

It could happen tomorrow . . .An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.

For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.

Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling novel about a world that could be ours at any moment, where those left standing must learn what it means not just to survive, but to live amidst the devastation.

Gripped me from beginning to end – dark, creepy and suspenseful. James Dashner, New York Times Best-Selling author of The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials

A haunting and epic story of survival in a shattered world, ASHES is a must read. Michael Grant, New York Times Best-Selling author of Gone

Ilsa J. Bick is a child psychiatrist, film scholar, former Air Force major, and now a full-time author. Her critically acclaimed, award-winning YA novels include Draw the Dark, Drowning Instinct, and Ashes (a 2011 VOYA Perfect Ten). Ilsa currently lives in rural Wisconsin, near a Hebrew cemetery. One thing she loves about the neighbors: they're very quiet and only come around for sugar once in a blue moon. Visit her online at www.ilsajbick.com or adr3nalin3.blogspot.com and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

The Guardian

Ashes by Ilsa Bick, the first book in the Ashes trilogy, takes place in the present, when 17-year-old Alex hikes up a mountain to try and clear her head, but is brought to a sickening stop by a crushing force that wipes out anyone over 60 and leaves the survivors with either a supernatural sense…...

Examiner

Examiner

If the book had stayed at the same pace as it was in the beginning this book would have been an easy ‘A.’
Ashes is still worth a reader, but beware that the first half of the book is by far the best part.

Deseret News

Ashes is a unique take on the zombie mythos, tying in scientific possibility and probability for what would cause such a change in personal behavior and the use of EMP technology to end the world as we currently know it.

The British Fantasy Society

But not to despair: it picked back up again and Alex, the main character, was plunged head-first into an entirely new bizarre situation upon her arrival in a town named Rule, a place mainly occupied by the elderly and the ‘Spared’ ‘ those not in want of living human flesh and, in some cases, the ...